Video Description:
The slide shows the spotlight screen with text showing Deaf Ecosystem Spotlight, A conversation with Tia Morris, TJM Counseling & Consulting, LLC is located on the right. On the left, Tia Morris is a black female with half-down and half-up brown dreads. She is wearing a blue dress. The transcript is below:
Sonya: Hello, Guess who I am here with? Go ahead and introduce yourself.
Tia: Hi, my name is Tia Morris Sonya: Can you tell me about yourself
Tia: Sure, I am currently a clinical licensed social worker here in St. Louis, MO. I was born and raised here in St. Louis, MO. I went from Brentwood High School.
Sonya: Yay!
Tia: (laughing) thanks! After, I graduated from Brentwood High School. I also, graduated Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina, and then I came back home and went to the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Now, I work for myself.
Sonya: That’s neat! Did you know that she owns a business? So, Tell me what is your favorite part of your job?
Tia: There are two things that I like about my job for a therapist. First, I love helping people during their time of need and being able to support them through challenges, especially hard times in life. Second, I like about my job is being a business owner, to create the life that I want for myself, and doing things the way I want/need for myself. Also, I complete my work my way.
Sonya: That’s good. Does that mean you have flexible schedule? Right?
Tia: Very flexible schedule.
Sonya: Very cool! Very lucky you! So, what challenges you faced? Daily life? Related with work.
Tia: One thing I would say is I faced that a lot of time as a business owner is always ups and downs. A lot of times but not a lot of times throughout the years, there are some months that I have full schedule with clients. Some months it slows down like during the summer time. It impacts money coming in the business.
Sonya: I understand
Tia: and private life are ups and downs. Another thing is for me personally, I am not a social media person. My personal life, I don’t post on social media so that has transferred into my professional life where I am not on social media to market my business. I need to work on improving in that area for my business.
Sonya: What are some tips for business owners that you would like to share with them that they should be aware of?
Tia: Number 1 is to be flexible and number two know the area and what area would you be interested in or be involved in? uhm… do a lot of research. I would say this think about 3, 5, or 10 years for example, one thing I think about is How AI will impact therapy? Some people are saying there is no impact because we still need that human connection or contact and AI doesn’t provide that. Right now, it doesn’t provide that but you never know in the future if it will. think about the areas and the field and how it will be, maybe impacted later. Another thing is your support system, it doesn’t matter if its your friends, family or join business professions group, coach, consultant.
Sonya: Agree!
Tia: but being a business owner is a lot of work. It demands a lot of mental, emotionally, and physical so having a support system is important
Sonya: Thank you for this interview! I appreciate you for coming!
Tia: Thank you for inviting me!